Artie Ripp began his career as a singer, initially informally
harmonizing rock and roll songs with friends from high school. In 1957,
Ripp formed an official singing group with neighborhood friends; the
group was signed by ABC-Paramount Records as backup singers for ABC solo
artists. The singers sang backup for Paul Anka on his 1957 hit "Diana"
and broke up shortly thereafter.
Ripp rejoined with some of his informal singing partners (Mario
"Skippy" Scarpa, Stu Silverman, and Joe Tedesco) to form "The Four
Temptations". The quartet wrote its own songs and was signed by
ABC-Paramount Records, which released the group's first single in 1958.
The A-side, "Cathy" (named after Scarpa's newly born niece), was written
by Scarpa and Ripp; the B-side was "Rock & Roll Baby", written by
Scarpa, Ripp, and Silverman. When the group rejected opportunities
offered by the record company to record others' songs, the record
company withheld further recording opportunities, and the group
disbanded.
In
1958, Artie Ripp targeted George Goldner to be a potential mentor.
Goldner, based in New York City, was a music industry entrepreneur who
owned copyrights, produced records, and owned record companies. Goldner
was, in the words of American blues singer and songwriter Jerome "Doc"
Pomus, a "very hip, New York kind of tough guy." After Ripp spent weeks
informally observing Goldner at work, Goldner formally hired Ripp to be a
go-fer.
Artie Ripp with Phil Spector Temptations (3)
Ripp worked with songwriter and producer Richard Barrett within
Goldner's organization, where Ripp got a "street education in the record
business equal to none".[Ripp learned how Goldner worked a studio,
structured a record contract, and got records played on the radio.
Functioning as manager instead of performer, Ripp put together the New
York vocal group "The Temptations", (formed at least a year before the
name was used by the different Motown group). Ripp's Temptations
recorded for Goldner's Goldisc Records; its three singles were released
in 1960 and 1961. The song "Barbara" charted nationally, reaching number
29 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the spring of 1960.
